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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410097">that one thing where altena and julius meet bc i want wholesome family moments</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BisexualDisastaur/pseuds/AlpacaSoon'>AlpacaSoon (BisexualDisastaur)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Heroes Drabbles [31]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dysfunctional Family, Family, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, also altena and micaiah have like a moment, no beta we die like sigurd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 13:49:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410097</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BisexualDisastaur/pseuds/AlpacaSoon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Title says it all</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Altena &amp; Julius | Yurius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Heroes Drabbles [31]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/890532</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>that one thing where altena and julius meet bc i want wholesome family moments</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>There was a little mouse hiding from her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, he wasn’t a mouse, but Altena had long since begun such comparisons, and a new home would not break her from the habit. While she had been “Thracian” royalty, life had not been the fairytale it seemed to be for other nobles, and she often found it easier to compare behaviors to make things easier to compartmentalize and track.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Especially for this mouse. Which was weird, as this mouse had been a literal dragon in her original world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She raced around a corner, and only barely caught sight of a black cloak and red hair before it swung around the corner ahead. “Pft.” She grumbled, blowing her hair from her vision. “What’s with him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lady Altena?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The woman in question looked up to see Micaiah floating up to her. “Just Altena, Queen Micaiah. How many times has it been now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Many. And yet, you still refer to me with </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> honorific.” Micaiah landed lightly on her feet, her cloak fluttering and her gemmed sashes clinking. “If you insist that I refer to you without title, then you should do the same for me as well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Very well, if you truly think so… Micaiah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed. Now, is something the matter? You look troubled.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Altena sighed, gesturing to the corner ahead. “Someone’s been following me around, and I just can’t catch him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Julius?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Altena sucked in a breath, then slowly let it out. “So it really is him…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s so shy—it usually takes him a while to go out of his way to talk to someone new…” Micaiah paused, carefully glancing at Altena. “He’s changed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know.” She crossed her arms. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know. </span>
  </em>
  <span>But I can’t…” She sighed again and shook her head, lips pursed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re very much like your father.” Micaiah smiled gently. “Quan,” she went on to clarify, “stubborn, and unable to let go of the past.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What would you know,” Altena shot back, but then she wilted. “Sorry. That was rude of me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay.” Gently, Micaiah lay a warm hand on the wyvern rider’s shoulder. “I don’t mean to try and analyze you, but… You are similar to others I’ve met before, and I’ve seen people suffer by holding onto a past that only brings pain. You don’t deserve that suffering.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I don’t know what to do.” Altena replied helplessly. “I don’t know how to reconnect my past to my present… I don’t know what I can do to lessen the suffering.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Micaiah mulled over what she could help her fellow flier with. “Hnn… I do know that sometimes he enjoys dining with Seliph and his friends… Perhaps you can join them?”</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Altena actually rather enjoyed her solitude in Askr, although it hurt to see the rest of her extended family enjoying themselves. It felt so difficult for her to connect to them again, to try and forge and reforge bonds the bonds they already had among them. If anything, she and Ares often trained together, lance against sword, wyvern against stead, but since they shared the solitude and burden of being the oldest in their generation. But, after their training ended, Ares went back to Seliph and Leif, and Altena returned to her solitude.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, it was rather a surprise for everyone when Altena set her plate down next to Leif and sat down heavily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her brother, the adorable yet responsible ray of sunshine he was (when he wasn’t going through those moments of crippling depression), smiled at her happily. Seliph waved, and Ares merely nodded and returned to eating. Across the table, Julia smiled kindly, and next to her…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Julius hunched his shoulders, looking impossibly smaller with his black cloak, eyes darting around to look anywhere but her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hn. Interesting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Julius,” Altena started, and the boy jumped, eyes nervously darting up to meet hers before looking away again. “Y-Yes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should eat more.” Altena scooped up a few pieces of her own meat, reaching over to deposit it on his plate. “Keep up your strength. Stay healthy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“O-Oh. Thank y-you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mn.” That was enough for now. She took a bite from the rest of her food, then turned to Leif. “I heard that you’re starting to learn healing magic? Tell me more.”</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>From then on out, Julius took from anxiously fluttering at the edges of her vision to being more open. He didn’t talk to her, but he did watch her sometimes as she trained, and she swore she once saw him in the wyvern stables, looking at her wyvern.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, one day she landed after doing a few flying exercises. In the shade of the forest nearby, Julius studied her. “Hey,” she called, “come over here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He jumped, but didn’t stand, instead biting his lip and withdrawing further.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, cousin—Natasha won’t bite you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That got him. When he was within speaking distance, he stopped. “You called me cousin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because you are one. Come closer.” She gestured, and he finally stood next to her. “Isn’t Natasha beautiful? So many think of wyverns as harmful creatures, but I think they are no different from pegasi or horses.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I think the same!” Julius studied Natasha, who lazily blinked at him but made no move to harm him. “A-A lot of people compare them to giant lizards, but… Th-They descended from dragons, aren’t they? Like—” He suddenly flinched, the brightness in his eyes fading a little, his hands twisting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Altena studied him, trying to connect her image of a tyrannical, sadistic prince with the meek little boy in front of her. She had the uncharacteristic urge to wrap him in blankets and feed him chocolate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That wouldn’t do, though. “Do you want to pet her?” She offered instead. “Here—stroke her scales, like this. See?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh!” Julius grinned. “She’s warm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mn. Shall we go for a ride?” She easily lifted her cousin—who yelped, shifting in her grip—onto the saddle before climbing on behind him, grabbing the reins. “Don’t worry, I’ve had a lot of practice. I won’t let you fall. Natasha, let’s go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her wyvern roared, and together they rose into the sky.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Next time,” Altena said as she tugged the brush through her baby cousin’s hair, grimacing, “You have to tie your hair back whenever you go riding anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will, I will!” Julius tilted his head back happily, reveling in the warmth and kindness of his cousin after so many years without a caring hand to hold him. “I really went flying today!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, we did.” Altena tugged the brush through again, working her way through the curls he had most definitely inherited from his mother. “Did you like it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did.” Julius closed his eyes, remembering how it felt, after that initial terror, to feel the wind in his face and the ground far below, to feel nothing but the warmth of family against his back and the freedom of the sky. “Let’s go again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anytime. Tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after…” Altena paused, breathing in deep. “As long as you’re happy.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Julius, in therapy that Kiran assigns ¾ of their Heroes to because they need it: Is it weird that I like the sky? Because I have a crippling fear of being connected to the ground, due to being possessed by an dark dragon with kinda connections to mad earth dragons that forced me to kill children and my own family, and now I’m afraid of having my feet on the ground because I’m afraid something’s going to come up and grab me again and this time it won’t let me go just because I’m not holding a tome. Anyways, is it weird?</p><p>The therapist: Lordy. </p><p>Altena, waltzing in right after Julius leaves: Is it weird to want to kill your cousin but also wrap him up in blankets at the same time? Also, I was talking about a mutual hatred of archers with a teammate and now I think I'm lesbian.</p><p>The therapist, tossing their notes out the window: I don’t get paid enough for this.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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